Unlocking a Legacy
by MoTi550
Summary: When the Worlds are once again attacked, it is up to Sora and Riku to figure out what's going on and stop them before it's too late. The answer, however, may lie where they'd never think to look for it. Collab with Riku-Rocks.
1. Emit Remmus

_Crack_

"_Hah_! I _told_ you I got better!"

_Crack_

"Oh, I'm sure. I become a better fighter when I'm asleep, too."

_Crack_

"Hey! I did a lot besides sleep!"

_Crack, crack_

"…And working on your blocking apparently wasn't on the list."

"_Hey_!"

The sun set peacefully at Destiny Islands as two teenage boys clashed wooden practice swords on the beach.

"Come on, Sora! You're the 'Chosen Wielder of the Keyblade'. Somehow, I thought you'd be better than this;" Riku jeered as he flipped out of harm's way while Sora slashed at him.

"I _am_! Stop jumping and flipping, and get over here and _fight me_!" Sora shouted at his best friend, slowly becoming more frustrated. Riku responded by leaping at the blue-eyed boy, catching his stick, and spinning his in a quick circle, and throwing Sora's wooden sword out of his hand. Sora's face fell as he watched his makeshift sword twirl gracefully through the air and landed several yards away in the sand. Sora growled quietly, stuck his arm out, and extended his hand. Suddenly, a bright flash of light cut the fleeing daylight. Sora, smirking wildly, quickly spun the Kingdom Key in his hand and charged Riku. Riku stared at his best friend in disbelief.

"Wait! We're using Keyblades now?" he said as Sora split his stick in half. Riku jumped back and stared. Stared at his broken stick. Stared at his smug friend. Stared at his broken stick. Stared at his smug friend. The sides of his face tugged into a small grin.

"Well okay, then," Riku said as he raised his right arm over his head. Instantly, a flash of light that could not be described as bright or dark gave way to the Way to the Dawn. The two glanced at each other.

"Your move," Riku said.

"Ladies first," Sora taunted.

Riku smirked and charged. Sora met him halfway and leapt into the air. He came down and slashed Riku right as he rolled away. Riku leapt up and countered with a quick slash, which Sora guarded against within inches of his face. He glanced at Riku, who spun around and tried to catch Sora from the side. Sora yelped and rolled out of the way. Riku took his opportunity and jumped into the air, charging down at Sora.

"Oh! Who's jumping and flipping no—"

"_Fira_!" Sora shouted, as an orange ball of fire shot from his Keyblade and blew Riku twenty feet across the beach. Riku landed with a thud and didn't get up. A quick surge of guilt ran through Sora, and he leapt up to aid his friend.

"Riku! I'm so sorr- _Ah_!"

"You didn't say we could use magic," Riku said as he outstretched his left arm. A small smirk formed on his face as a dark orb surrounded his palm. Sora's eyes widened as he turned to run. His intention was cut off by a wave of Dark Auras, which caught him in the chest and blew him halfway across the sand.

"_Riku_!" a sharp voice said behind him.

"Oh, hi Kairi!" Riku said, as he turned to greet the brunette.

"Should you and Sora _really_ be playing Keyblade Master here? Don't you think that will make the I-went-to-visit-my-long-lost-uncle-for-year story seem a little, um, fishy?" Kairi said as she tilted an eyebrow and tapped her foot.

"You may be right," Riku agreed, "But can you hold that thought for just one second? Oh, and step back a few feet?" Kairi jumped back just as Sora ran up to Riku from behind, leapt into the air, and came charging down at Riku, who enveloped himself in a dark, translucent bubble. Sora yelped as he bounced off of the bubble and sailed across the beach once again. Kairi winced as she watched Sora crash into the sand.

"Was that honestly fair?" she said amusedly.

"About as fair as shooting me in the face with fire," Riku retorted.

"True. Um, by the way, I think you might want to watch out," Kairi said as she pointed in Sora's direction. The both looked in time to see Sora engulfed in light. Once the light faded, they saw that his clothing had turned red, and he had two Keyblades.

"Really? Can you two make yourselves look any _more_ conspicuous?" Kairi said as she rolled her eyes.

"Excuse me for a moment" Riku said before he ran to clash with his best friend again.

Sora slowly began to take the upper hand with two Keyblades. He caught Way to the Dawn with Kingdom Key and swiped at Riku with Star Seeker, catching the silvered teen in the ribcage and sending him to the ground. Riku held Sora off with some Dark Aura spells as he rolled out of harm's way. He danced and jumped before slashing aerially at Sora, who became increasingly frustrated.

"Get. Down. Here. And. _Fight_. _Me_!" The spiky-haired teen roared as Riku sailed through the air like a bird.

He hit the ground and rolled and sprung up just as Sora was about to connect with his head. He took his opening and knocked Star Seeker out of Sora's left arm. Sora spun and slashed at him with Kingdom Key, which he blocked. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sora outstretched his left hand. Star Seeker obediently re-appeared in a brilliant flash of light. He grinned and went to take the final blow when Star Seeker disappeared. Sora looked at his hand in surprise, and then looked down at his outfit, which had regained its usual coloring. Riku grinned and leapt up into the air. An energy that appeared to be made of both darkness and light lit up the beach surrounded him, when it faded, Riku remained suspended in the air somehow. The silvered teen's pants and vest were now a light shade of grey, and his vest had turned a shade of jet-black with small white stripes lining the hem. He held Way to the Dawn in one hand, and Oblivion in the other grinning at the shocked expression on his best friend's face.

"_You can do that, too?"_ Sora said in disbelief.

"What, you thought you were the _only_ one who could change form?" he said as the darklight surrounded him again. Sora could feel the very air around him seem to stretch and twist. He looked around in confusion. Whatever attack Riku was charging, it was probably going to hurt.

It was then that he noticed something much more important.

"Hey, Riku! Look up in the sky!" Sora yelled.

"Sora, do you _really_ think that I'm going to fall for that?"

"No, really! I promise! Look!" Sora said as he continued to point upwards. Riku grumbled as he landed softly and regained his normal appearance. He turned to look up as Kairi ran up to the both of them.

"Hey! Why'd you sto- oh," Kairi looked up as well.

The three stared in horror as the stars in the sky began to fade. And then, one by one, began to go out entirely.

"That…cannot be good," Sora muttered.

"Hey!" someone yelled at them from behind. The three turned to see Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, and Penelo running up to them.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked as Tidus reached him.

"We're being attacked by these…weird…black _things_!" Tidus yelled, causing Sora and Riku to glance at each other. Just as the others reached them, several black shadows surrounded the teenagers. The shadows grew upwards, and became Neo Heartless.

Neither Sora nor Riku knew why, but it was happening again.


	2. Turn It Again

No sooner had they looked around when the entire beach seemed to turn black with the masses of the descending Heartless.

"This cannot be good," uttered Riku.

"What should we do?" Sora asked as he and the other teens were pushed into a smaller and smaller circle.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but when I get attacked, I tend to _fight back_," Penelo growled as she grabbed her pair of daggers and leapt into the sea of darkness.

"Can't argue with that logic, ya?" Wakka said.

"I can _so_ defeat more of these things than you can," Tidus mused as he summoned Brotherhood. Wakka snickered and tossed his Match Ball at the nearest pair of glowing yellow eyes, which then disappeared into a cloud of black dust.

"I'm already winning, ya?" he shouted as he ran towards the mass of Heartless.

"Wait! No wait! That's not _fair_!" Tidus shouted as he left the circle.

Selphie followed suit, grabbed Morning Star, and left the sanctity of the group in an attempt to ward off the strange creatures.

"Riku…? This, this can't be _our_ fault, can it?" Sora asked in horror.

"Heartless first," Riku said as he extended his right arm. Way to the Dawn obediently appeared in a blinding light that cut the growing darkness, "Questions later."

The answer appeared to satisfy the brunette, as the Kingdom Key subsequently appeared in his own hand.

"Kairi, I..." Sora started to say when Kairi raised her arm and flexed her fingers. Suddenly, the closest dozen Heartless were struck by a bright flash of lightning and dissipated into the air. Sora's jaw dropped.

"It's okay, Sora. I got this," the girl stated with a smug grin. Sora shook off the shock and ran to join the fight.

The sounds of swinging weapons and the sights of magical spells cut the deepening twilight of the beach. The seven teens fought viciously and slowly began to reclaim their homes as the waves of Heartless rapidly began to diminish.

"Hey, Riku!" Sora shouted as he tossed his Keyblade at a group of Neo Shadows, "You'd think they would send something stronger after us or something!" he said as he caught his Keyblade.

"Sora! Don't…" Riku stopped short as he stared up the beach.

"What? I'm jus…_whoa_. Who's he?" Sora stopped as he stared at a figure approaching him and Riku. The figure was older, so it could not be any of their comrades. They could not make out any defining features in the growing darkness. All they could tell was that it was growing closer.

"Hey! You think he's a friend-" Sora was cut off as five small, sharp, deadly-looking triangles were flung at his head and bounced off of an invisible barrier inches in front of his face. Sora looked up to see Riku forming a Dark Shield in front of the two of them.

"I'm leaning towards 'no' on that question," Riku responded as he dropped softly to the ground. The figure stopped. It was close enough that they boys should have been able to distinguish features, but they could not. The dark figure was featureless and almost translucent. It had dimly glowing red orbs where its eyes should have been, but otherwise was just a dark human figure. In a sickeningly familiar flash of light, the figure summoned a strange-looking Keyblade. The Keyblade was shorter than Sora's or Riku's, and had a series of sharp spikes surrounding the end. Waves of red and navy twirled up the blade, and each color took half of the handle. The boys' eyes grew wide.

"Well… That absolutely cannot be good," Riku said.

"I'd have to agree with you on that, yes," Sora said as he charged the strange figure. The two fought with the strange figure for what seemed like an eternity. Just when one would get an opening, they would be nearly impaled with those strange sharp blades. The figure skilfully fought both of the Keyblade Masters off. Finally, Sora locked Keyblades with the figure. Riku saw the opening and fired several Dark Firaga spells, knocking the figure to the ground. Sora wasted no time and thrust his Keyblade into the figure's ethereal abdomen. The figure screeched an awful, ear-splitting screech that echoed across the beach. Finally, the twisting, contorting dark creature dissolved into a cloud, leaving a small, odd object in its place. Sora bent down and picked up the object. It was a small, spike-covered sphere, which gently oscillated back and forth at the end of a small chain.

"Riku? Is this a…"

"A Keychain," Riku observed as he looked at the small swinging object.

"...But, how? What just attacked us? What is going on?" Sora asked. He looked around at his beach. All the Heartless had been defeated. His home was safe.

"I don't know. But I think we need to go visit my uncle again," Riku muttered. Sora nodded

"_Hey_!" Tidus shouted as he ran up to the other two. "What _was_ that? What _were_ those things? And how did you two become so good at fighting?"

"Um, Riku's uncle?" Sora offered as the rest ran up to join the three.

"Well, that was strange. Good job, you guys! Oh, and Riku…? You're kind of bleeding. A lot," Penelo observed as she pointed to Riku's left arm, which had a deep gash at the shoulder. Blood ran down his arm and dripped onto the sand.

"I am? Oh, would you look at that," Riku said as he turned to stare at his left deltoid.

"I got it!" Kairi said as a soft white-green light left her hand. It shot over to Riku's shoulder, and a moment later, all that remained of the wound were some bloodstains on the beach.

"Kairi; when did you get so, um, useful?" asked Sora bluntly.

"What? You're not the only one with a useful, distant relative, you know!" Kairi said as she smiled deviously.

"Yeah man, I wish I had a mysterious and fake-sounding uncle that taught me how to fight things," Tidus muttered.

"Who needs an _uncle_ when you got _Wakka_, ya?" Wakka shouted as he tossed his blitzball at the blonde boy. Tidus dodged out of the way and chucked the ball back at the redhead, who could not stop laughing in time to catch the ball. The ball hit him in the abdomen and he fell to the ground.

"You know, you've all gotten really good," Sora said, "Can I trust you all to watch the islands for me?" The group stopped laughing immediately.

"Where are you going _now_?" Selphie demanded.

"To see Riku's uncle," stated Sora while Riku simultaneously answered, "To my uncle's." The group stared incredulously.

"No, really; we need to go see Riku's uncle…like, um, _now_. Bye, guys! We'll see you soon!" Sora said as he and Riku turned to walk across the beach.

"All right, what are we doing; where are we going; and how do we get there?" Sora asked his best friend the moment they were a safe distance away from their shell-shocked friends.

"Well, normally, when there's a Heartless attack of this scale, Radiant Garden is always one of the hardest worlds hit. I think we should go help them out before it's too late. Also, didn't you say that there was a computer system there? Maybe we can find out what's going on with these strange Keychain creatures. As for getting there; light portals, perhaps...?"

"Light Portals?" questioned Sora, tilting his head slightly.

"Well, I can't open Dark Portals at will the way I used to…and besides, if the Heartless are this active, we should probably stay out of the Realm of Darkness. Besides, light doors were how we got here, after all."

The spiky-haired teen furrowed his brows as he searched his memories, "But, I don't know how I did that! I just read that letter from Kairi like you told me to, and-"

"_Sor-ra_!" a voice shouted from behind them. The boys stopped and turned to see Kairi running across the sand.

"You just got back! Don't leave me again!" she said softly.

"Kairi; it looks like all the worlds are being attacked by Heartless again, and these strange things that seem to come from Keychains,"

"Keychains...?"

Sora held up a spiky Keychain. "This took on an animate form, and then attacked me and Riku. We had to defeat it to make it turn back into a Keychain. Something bad is happening, and we have to go find out what's going on," Sora explained as he put a hand on Kairi's shoulder. She stared into Sora's eyes and hugged him tightly.

"You had better come back," she whispered.

"I will," he promised as he let go of the redhead, "Besides, I have Riku with me! What could possibly go wrong?" he said with a giant grin. Kairi glared at Riku.

"_You_," she growled threateningly at Riku, who tilted his head. "_You_ need to come back in one piece, too; got it? None of this darkness, Ansem, life-and-death-on-a-daily-basis-oops-I-have-someone-_evil_-trapped-in-my-body _crap_ this time; we all care about you and no one would be the same if we lost you," she said as she stamped her foot. Riku smiled sheepishly.

"I promise," he said quietly. Kairi gave him a quick and awkward hug before leaving the two boys to their plans.

"Anyway…light portals. I think all you have to do is think about Radiant Garden and how you really need to get there and... what?"

"Well jeez Riku. She's a _girl_, not a poisonous Poison Beast"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, you _could _have been stiffer and more awkward for that hug, but you would to have had to really _try_"

"What? Oh come on, don't we have more important things to think about? Like, um, the worlds disappearing? Shouldn't you be thinking about the situation at hand, Sora?"

"Oh, I am. All I need to do is _believe_ and somehow a magic trans-dimensional door to Radiant Garden will just _appear_ and-" Sora was cut-off by a bright flash of light. A bright rectangle materialized in front of the boys.

"You're such a great little believer, Sora," Riku sneered.

"At least I can effectively interact with other people " Sora observed as Riku shot him a glare. "To Radiant Garden," he shouted enthusiastically.

With that, the two Keyblade Masters stepped into the doorway and disappeared in a bright flash of light.


End file.
